Russian Expeditionary Force Staff Captain Vadim Maslov. Mata Hari's last love. Movies and books

In the early morning of October 15, 1917, at a training ground in the Bois de Vincennes near Paris, a volley from a firing squad put an end to the life of Margaret Gertrude Celle-McLeod, known throughout the world under the stage name Mata Hari...

Who was Mata Hari really? A beautiful oriental dancer? Europe's first stripper? A courtesan, mistress of the most influential people of the Old World? The famous spy who worked for two opposing intelligence services simultaneously during World War I? Or maybe just a woman?

“I was born in distant India, in the principality of Jaffatam on the coast of Malabar, and I belong to the highest caste of Brahmins. My father was a Raja and my mother was a temple dancer. She died during childbirth, and immediately after birth the priests put me in a golden font and named me Mata Hari, which means “Eye of the Dawn”- this is how, in her own words, the story of this legendary life began.

Her real biography has nothing to do with this exotic tale. Margaret Gertrude Celle was born on August 7, 1876 in the provincial town of Leeuwarden, in the north of the most boring European country at that time - Holland. The second child in the family of successful hatter Adam Celle. in which, besides her, four more boys grew up. The only and beloved daughter, a girl with big eyes, a slender figure and thick black hair, a coquette - from childhood Margaret knew how and loved to charm. But the happiness of the Celle family ended quite soon.

When Margaret was thirteen years old, hatter Adam Celle went bankrupt and decided to try his luck in Amsterdam, leaving the children in the care of his wife. Two years later, when his wife died, the father placed the children among numerous relatives. Young Margaret endlessly changed uncles and schools until she ended up in The Hague, in a boarding school at a local monastery. True, she didn’t really want to study - she dreamed of getting married and moving away from her boring homeland.

An omnipotent chance helped: one day in the newspaper a girl came across a marriage advertisement: “An officer on leave from East India would like to meet a girl of good character with a view to marriage.” The message was given by a friend of the Dutch army captain Rudolf McLeod. The girl responded and sent the captain a letter with her photograph.

Soon they had a meeting that decided the outcome of the matter. She was only 18, he was 38. By the standards of that time, the age difference was not that big. Adam Celle gave the young couple his parental blessing, and on July 11, 1895 Margaret became a married lady.

Soon the dream of escaping from Holland becomes a reality: Captain McLeod was assigned to a naval base on the distant island of Java. Margaret, who was then expecting her first child, happily went on a trip with her husband.

Here, in Java, she led the life of an exemplary officer's wife, studied the Malay language, gave birth to a second child - a daughter, and raised her eldest son. But it was in South Asia that her husband revealed a different side to her: a drunkard, a womanizer and a jealous man, McLeod regularly found himself native mistresses, citing local traditions. At the same time, Rudolf became terribly angry when one of the officers tried to flirt with his wife. He often got drunk and beat Margaret.

A few years later, trouble came to their family. Rudolf, finding a Malay soldier sleeping at his post, ordered that he be given 50 blows. The Malay endured the flogging without making a sound, but vowed revenge and persuaded the cook, who was in love with him, to poison the captain’s children.

Margaret and Rudolf's eldest son died in agony, and only with great efforts did they manage to save their tiny daughter. This terrible story not only failed to unite the spouses, but also completely quarreled them. A few months later they returned to Holland, where they immediately separated.

The captain of the royal troops, Rudolf McLeod, was quick to inform about this by placing a new advertisement in the newspaper, in which he announced that he was free from marriage and refused to pay his ex-wife’s bills.

By that time, Margaret Celle-McLeod was already 28 years old. She was left alone - without a husband, without money, without work and without children (Rudolph took away his wife’s right to raise his daughter, who died at the age of 21).

The ex-wife of a Dutch officer had neither education nor profession. Moreover, after long travels, after oriental luxury and exoticism, tiny Puritan Holland was too crowded for her. Paris is a different matter. True, the girl did not have any voice, and she spoke French with a terrible accent, so the profession of a singer and actress disappeared by itself. Working as a model also didn’t work out: the artists considered the breasts of the future sex goddess to be too small, if not flat. Later, already at the zenith of her fame, Mata Hari would do everything to ensure that no one knew about this shortcoming.

Using the method of elimination, Margaret came up with the idea of ​​exotic dancing, choosing a completely suitable pseudonym for this: Mata Hari. Margaret Celle-McLeod's Paris debut took place on March 13, 1905 in the hall of the Guimet Museum. Her appearance on stage was preceded by a short performance by Monsieur Guimet himself with an intriguing story about distant, mysterious India and a brief biography of the performer: the daughter of a temple dancer, she was kidnapped from the Shiva temple by a British officer madly in love with her, with whom she married and lived until local fanatics killed her. both him and their firstborn, and further in the same spirit.

Only then, to the sounds of mesmerizing music, a mysterious woman in luxurious oriental attire appeared before the audience. Dancing slowly, she began to undress and soon was left in only a bodice, the cups of which were decorated with jewels. Heavy bracelets jingled on her arms and legs.

« My dance is a sacred poem, and every movement in it is a word. I performed these dances in the Shiva temple,- Mata Hari said to the admiring spectators. — All temple dances are fundamentally religious; sacred texts are conveyed through gestures and poses».

Given the fashionable passion for Eastern mysticism and the occult at that time, this was quite enough for the emergence of a real world sensation. Although there were no more than a hundred exotic lovers in the small hall that evening, the very next morning all of Paris was talking only about the oriental beauty, who was naked on the stage strewn with rose petals.

The daughter of a Dutch hatter, the ex-wife of a Dutch warrior overnight turned into “the living embodiment of the mysterious East.” Wherever she appeared, be it the famous variety show Folies Bergere or the no less famous Ballet of Monte Carlo, her performances were always a success.

It wasn't just jaded rich slackers who felt the delight. Even the great composer Puccini could not resist and sent her a huge bouquet of flowers to her hotel with a note: “When I saw your dance, I felt in seventh heaven.”

It is curious that Margaret herself was very critical of her abilities. “People come to my performances only because I was the first woman who dared to appear in front of them without clothes.”- she said.

However, Margaret, undressing almost completely on stage, never remained completely naked: her chest was covered by a bejeweled bodice, and a flesh-colored tights always remained on her hips. In August 1906, having squeezed everything she could out of the loving Parisians, Mata Hari set off to conquer neighboring countries.

The fame of the exotic dancer was preceded by rumors about her numerous love victories. If you believe the newspapers of that time, in just a year she managed to seduce the entire French Council of Ministers, the entire male part of the English royal house, not to mention hundreds of millionaires, politicians, artists and, of course, high-ranking military officers. And this despite the fact that the courtesan priced her intimate services at the highest rate at that time - seven thousand francs per night.

At first, she adhered to a firm rule: not to sleep with the same man more than twice. “There are so many men, and I’m only one!”- Mata Hari often said.

But in Berlin she first violated this principle, becoming the constant mistress of the Prussian landowner Alfred Kiepert, lieutenant of the Kaiser's personal convoy. Their romance lasted for two years - exactly the same amount of time it took her to ruin one of the richest people in Prussia with her exorbitant spending.

In just the first year of her life with “darling Alfie,” Mata Hari managed to spend more than five million marks on luxurious outfits (she never appeared in public twice in the same dress), shoes (after leaving the estate, she gave the servants more than a thousand pairs shoes) and jewelry (she needed a whole container to transport the “stones” she earned in Germany).

And if we add to this her habit of taking a daily bath from the best varieties of champagne and absorbing kilograms of the freshest sturgeon caviar, one can only wonder why Kipert did not go broke earlier.

Having parted with the landowner who had lost all material value for her, in the summer of 1908 Mata Hari returned to her beloved Paris, where she quickly found herself a new patron, the retired General Rousseau, who had become fabulously rich by supplying the army with new high-speed guns. The arms manufacturer made her his common-law wife and opened a loan for her in the country's largest bank, setting only one condition: the famous dancer would have to leave the stage and become the mistress of his luxurious castle on the Loire. Mata Hari did not object.

Having gained power over the millionaire, she threw herself headlong into her favorite pastime - she began to waste money. Russo's ruinous spending on his mistress and a rather risky game on the stock exchange led to financial ruin within a year. All his property was sealed, so Margaret had to move from the luxurious castle to a modest - “only” three floors and thirty rooms - mansion in a Parisian suburb.

In the spring of 1911 she returned to the stage. Although almost six years have passed since Mata Hari’s debut and it was already difficult to surprise anyone with a public striptease in the Old World, the return of the 35-year-old bayadère became her new triumph. The doors of the most famous theater in Europe - Milan's La Scala - opened before her. The management, which had recently rejected the great Isadora Duncan, gave Mata Hari an engagement, declaring her “an unsurpassed master of the art of dance.”

The performances were sold out, but the dancer, accustomed to spending without counting, was constantly short of money. And rich lovers, frightened by the stories of Kiepert and Rousseau, did not dare to take the fatal beauty on full board. But there was an abundance of military men hovering around her, who always attracted the hatter’s daughter so strongly.

Over the years, Mata Hari refused intimacy to a military man only once - this unlucky one turned out to be a very young, but persistent lieutenant beyond his years with the non-Aryan surname Canaris.

During a date in the spring of 1914, he tried to recruit a dancer to work for German intelligence. The indignant courtesan threw the young man in uniform out the door. The future head of Hitler’s Abwehr did not forget such an insult...

In July 1914, she arrived in Berlin, where she signed a contract to participate in the ballet “The Thief of Millions.” The premiere was scheduled for September 1. However, the dancer’s plans were not destined to come true: a month before the appointed date, the First World War began.

And again Mata Hari must start all over again. She is 38 years old, money is running out, and stage triumphs have to be postponed until peacetime. It was at this moment that Mata Hari was found by German intelligence representative von Kappel, who decided to use the dancer’s numerous love affairs with Parisian high society for the glory of the German Empire.

The stranded courtesan realized that the war could turn out to be the same source of income as the stage, and the role of a spy is hardly more difficult than the role of an oriental stripper - and agreed to the proposal, asking for 100 thousand imperial marks in advance. The Germans allocated her only 30 thousand, but Mata Hari, who received the code name H21, was happy about this. Apparently, she had no intention of trying hard in her new field, hoping to fool everyone around her finger once again.

Margaret didn’t care who to extract money from - rich lovers or the German General Staff. She did not yet understand that in this new play, where everything depends on men in uniform, she herself was only assigned the role of an extra, and at the right moment she would simply be removed from the stage. Moreover, it was during the war that the irreparable happened.

Mata Hari, who only allowed men to love her, and for very substantial sums, fell in love herself. 21-year-old staff captain of the dragoon regiment Vadim Maslov, who served in the Russian expeditionary force in France, was old enough to be the son of a 40-year-old dancer. But for his sake, Margaret was ready to do literally anything. It is unlikely that Vadim had the same feelings for her, although he was certainly flattered by the passion of such a famous woman, who delighted and attracted a whole host of rich and famous men. Most likely, for him it was just a fleeting romance, especially since the staff captain did not intend to start a family in the near future - unlike the dancer’s previous lovers, the Russian officer was not rich.

But Mata Hari was not going to give up - the courtesan in love was ready to move mountains. She promised Maslov to get the money, and now she had only one way to do this. For the sake of love for the Russian officer, Mata Hari finally decided to become a professional spy. She, of course, understood perfectly. that espionage was an unsafe occupation, but she hoped that, as always, she would be saved by her beauty and connections in high circles. Besides, she could only think about her future life with Vadim. In her dreams, she pictured the house where they would live after the war, going out and, of course, children—the children they shared with Vadim.

The craft of a spy was for her at that time the only way to get rich. In order to stay with Maslov, Mata Hari was ready to seduce and betray half of Europe. “Masloff was the only man I truly loved”, Margaret will later say at the trial, where a photograph of them together will be presented as evidence. In the photo, Mata Hari’s handwriting says: “In memory of the most wonderful days of my life, spent with the wonderful Vadim, whom I love more than anything in the world”.

To take this photo, Mata Hari came to the resort town of Vittel, where the “wonderful Vadim,” wounded near Verdun, was undergoing treatment at that time. Since the resort was located on the front line, Margaret had to go to Captain Lad, who at that time headed the French counterintelligence, for permission to travel.

- There is a war going on... but whose side are you on? — at the first meeting the captain asked.

“I’m Dutch,” admitted Mata Hari. - And Holland maintains neutrality... But my sympathies are on the side of France.

- Great! — Ladu exclaimed contentedly. “Then you simply must work for the good of France and for its victory.”

When Mata Hari returned to Paris, Captain Ladoux immediately invited her to go to Belgium and, seducing Werflein, a close friend of the Governor General of Belgium, to begin transmitting information to Paris. Mata Hari agreed, demanding a million francs “for the cause”: “I will need to buy a lot of beautiful dresses, because I can’t appear naked in front of the governor?” Ladu agreed to provide an advance of 30 thousand - in the old days, this is how much she earned in just a few dates.

So Mata Hari became a double agent - she was now paid money by both the Germans and the French. During the First World War, many successful spies worked for both warring sides - for example, the mistress of the German intelligence resident in Spain, the beautiful Martha Riche (operational pseudonym Lark) or Elisabeth Schragmuller (Frau Doktor), who at the end of the war became one of the leaders of German intelligence.

Compared to them, the dancer Mata Hari looked like a pitiful amateur. The role of a spy turned out to be a failure for her: she was unable to obtain either information for her curators or big money for herself. The myth of Mata Hari as the greatest double agent in history is just that, a myth. She simply pulled money from the German and French treasuries, sending in return information that turned out to be either completely insignificant or well known to everyone. For two and a half years, she never conveyed information that would in any way influence the course of hostilities.

But, as it turned out, it was just such an amateur spy that suited German and French intelligence. Mata Hari turned out to be a bargaining chip in a complex combination invented by the intelligence services of the two countries. In the last years of the war, the French needed a high-profile show trial of a dangerous agent, and the Germans had long used Mata Hari to transmit misinformation to the enemy through her.

In the end, German intelligence decided to simply hand over their agent H21 as unnecessary. In addition, the Germans, who had been unsuccessfully trying to break through the Allied positions on the Western Front for two years, also benefited from the espionage scandal in France. It would give them a chance to misdirect French counterintelligence officers, diverting suspicion from the real agents who infested the French rear.

However, one of the German intelligence officers also had a personal motive. Lieutenant Canaris, the same one whom Mata Hari contemptuously refused only a few years ago, worked as a resident assistant in Spain. It was he who sent a telegram in the fall of 1916 that radically changed the life of the unlucky intelligence officer: “Agent N21 is here. Claims to have been recruited by the French. Demands new money to return to Paris. Telegraph how to deal with her.”

It should be clarified that by the summer of 1916, the French had already set up the most modern radio interception center at the top of the Eiffel Tower, so German intelligence used radio communications extremely carefully. Moreover, by that time no one had used the exposed cipher of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - but it was precisely with this that the ill-fated telegram was encrypted. Therefore, the Germans wanted the French to read this information. The telegram became bait, which French intelligence immediately swallowed.

In December of the same year, one of the loyal fans hinted to the dancer that the competent authorities strongly recommended that he break off all relations with her. But Mata Hari did not attach any importance to this warning. She didn’t pay attention to the nervousness of Captain Lada, who actually put the brakes on the preparations for sending her to the German rear. Margaret's thoughts were occupied with something else: why did her lover disappear so mysteriously?

Indeed, on the very eve of Christmas, Staff Captain Maslov, on orders from Russian counterintelligence, left his hospital and departed in an unknown direction, without leaving even a note for Margaret. She returned to France - here the last few weeks of freedom awaited her, which Mata Hari spent as if intoxicated, as if already anticipating her approaching end. She changed lovers almost hourly, spent crazy amounts of money in the casino, and went on wild sprees.

The wild life ended on February 13, 1917, when six policemen, led by the chief of the Parisian police, appeared on the threshold of her room at the Palace Hotel. He read out the order for the arrest of Margaret Celle on charges of espionage. The investigation was unable to provide evidence of Mata Hari's guilt, but the judges still sentenced her to death. If she had been arrested a year earlier, Mata Hari could have easily gotten away with deportation from the country or, at worst, several years in prison.

But it was in 1917 that the Clemenceau government came to power and, in the name of bringing the war to a victorious end, proclaimed a decisive cleansing of the French rear from traitors. A large show trial was required, and it was difficult to imagine a better victim than a popular dancer and scandalous courtesan with a reputation as an unscrupulous seductress. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the French authorities made the poor woman the culprit of almost all of their military failures and huge losses. She had about the same chance of surviving as Joan of Arc had of avoiding the fire in Rouen.

The most surprising thing is that the French prosecutors could not provide direct evidence of her guilt. The main evidence - a bottle supposedly containing sympathetic ink - turned out to be mercuric cyanide, a painful but quite effective contraceptive for that time, which Mata Hari, due to her turbulent sex life, constantly resorted to. Prosecutor Bouchardon compensated for the lack of evidence with angry pathos of speeches: he even accused the stripper of organizing the murder of the British Minister of War Lord Kitchener, although he died on a ship that sank from the explosion of a German torpedo.

There was also no need to talk about the impartiality of the judges. On the eve of the trial, the dancer's former lover, the military commandant, Major Maccap, instructed the judges on behalf of the senior military leadership: “Mata Hari is guilty. And if this woman cannot be shot as a spy, she must be burned as a witch.".

In this situation, her many fans behaved differently. The civilians still tried to help - for example, lawyer Clune agreed to defend Mata Hari for free, and even after the verdict he turned to President Poincaré, begging him to replace the death penalty with prison. But the military men she loved so much openly chickened out. The former Minister of War, General Messimy, even sent a letter to the trial, written by his wife, in which he asked to be excused from testifying, since he did not know the accused at all.

Mata Hari laughed: “He doesn’t know me? And when he slept with me and confessed his love to me, he didn’t know either?!” “If anyone paid me, it was the French counterintelligence, since I worked only for them,- said Mata Hari. “The fact that I had intimate relationships with people in different countries does not mean that I spied in their interests.”

The trial began on July 24, 1917, lasted one day behind closed doors, and ended with a death sentence. At the end of the trial, Mata Hari did not even try to defend herself. She didn’t care anymore: Vadim Maslov never showed up at the trial.

Early in the morning of October 15, Captain Bouchardon appeared in cell No. 12 of the Saint-Lazare prison. “Take courage, madam,” he said. — Your request for pardon was rejected by the President of the French Republic. The time has come." "This is impossible!- shouted Mata Hari, who until the last moment believed that she would be pardoned. — This is impossible!"

Nuns rushed to her, who in recent days often supported the condemned woman. “No need, sisters.- said Mata Hari, suddenly calming down. — I know how to behave, and I know how I should die."

The last journey through the streets of Paris is a military training ground. A lonely thin figure of a woman stretched out in front of a platoon of soldiers. Black silk dress, black hat. She refused the offer to blindfold her and calmly looked into the barrels aimed at her.

And before the shots rang out, Mata Hari, the spy and courtesan, blew a kiss to the shooters. Mata Hari was killed by a single bullet that hit her right in the heart. Only one soldier from the entire platoon shot at her - the rest fired bullets into the air.

Her body, once one of the most coveted, turned out to be of no use to anyone and was donated to the medical college at the Sorbonne. There her head was separated from her body and given to the anatomical museum, to an exhibition of images of the greatest criminals. The exhibit was kept here for almost 85 years, until - already in 2003 - its mysterious disappearance was discovered. And after her death, Mata Hari continues to confuse numerous researchers of her life - perhaps this last mystery of hers will forever remain unsolved.

She is called the most famous spy of all time. Her name has long been overgrown with legends and speculation that have nothing to do with reality. Some consider her an expensive prostitute, a mediocre dancer and an unsuccessful spy, while others praise her natural charisma and diplomatic abilities. Her name was Margaret Gertrude Zelle, but throughout the world she became known as Mata Hari...

“But she can’t dance at all, she has flat feet. She made up everything about her abilities!” - repeated the ex-husband of the beautiful dancer. But no one believed him. Although he was telling the honest truth.

The famous dancer really came up with a lot in her life...

“I was born in distant India, in the principality of Jaffatam on the coast of Malabar, and I belong to the highest caste of Brahmins. My father was a Raja and my mother was a temple dancer. She died during childbirth, and immediately after birth the priests put me in a golden font and named me Mata Hari, which means “Eye of the Dawn” - this is how, in her own words, the story of this legendary life began.

Her real biography has nothing to do with this exotic tale. Margaret Gertrude Celle was born on August 7, 1876 in the provincial town of Leeuwarden, in the north of the most boring European country at that time - Holland. The second child in the family of successful hatter Adam Celle. in which, besides her, four more boys grew up. The only and beloved daughter, a girl with big eyes, a slender figure and thick black hair, a coquette - from childhood Margaret knew how and loved to charm. But the happiness of the Celle family ended quite soon.

When Margaret was thirteen years old, hatter Adam Celle went bankrupt and decided to try his luck in Amsterdam, leaving the children in the care of his wife. Two years later, when his wife died, the father placed the children among numerous relatives. Young Margaret endlessly changed uncles and schools until she ended up in The Hague, in a boarding school at a local monastery. True, she didn’t really want to study – she dreamed of getting married and moving away from her boring homeland.

An omnipotent chance helped: one day in a newspaper a girl came across a marriage advertisement: “An officer who came on vacation from East India would like to meet a girl of good character for marriage.” The message was given by a friend of the Dutch army captain Rudolf McLeod. The girl responded and sent the captain a letter with her photograph. Soon they had a meeting that decided the outcome of the matter. She was only 18, he was 38. By the standards of that time, the age difference was not that big. Adam Celle gave the young couple his parental blessing, and on July 11, 1895 Margaret became a married lady.

Soon the dream of escaping from Holland becomes a reality: Captain McLeod was assigned to a naval base on the distant island of Java. Margaret, who was then expecting her first child, happily went on a trip with her husband. Here, in Java, she led the life of an exemplary officer's wife, studied the Malay language, gave birth to a second child - a daughter, and raised her eldest son. But it was in South Asia that her husband revealed a different side to her: a drunkard, a womanizer and a jealous man, McLeod regularly found himself native mistresses, citing local traditions. At the same time, Rudolf became terribly angry when one of the officers tried to flirt with his wife. He often got drunk and beat Margaret.

A few years later, trouble came to their family. Rudolf, finding a Malay soldier sleeping at his post, ordered that he be given 50 blows. The Malay endured the flogging without making a sound, but vowed revenge and persuaded the cook, who was in love with him, to poison the captain’s children. Margaret and Rudolf's eldest son died in agony, and only with great efforts did they manage to save their tiny daughter. This terrible story not only failed to unite the spouses, but also completely quarreled them. A few months later they returned to Holland, where they immediately separated. The captain of the royal troops, Rudolf McLeod, was quick to inform about this by placing a new advertisement in the newspaper, in which he announced that he was free from marriage and refused to pay his ex-wife’s bills.

By that time, Margaret Celle-McLeod was already 28 years old. She was left alone - without a husband, without money, without work and without children (Rudolph took away from his wife the right to raise her daughter, who died at the age of 21). The ex-wife of a Dutch officer had neither education nor profession. Moreover, after long travels, after oriental luxury and exoticism, tiny Puritan Holland was too crowded for her. Paris is a different matter. True, the girl did not have any voice, and she spoke French with a terrible accent, so the profession of a singer and actress disappeared by itself. Working as a model also didn’t work out: the artists considered the breasts of the future sex goddess to be too small, if not flat, - later, already at the zenith of fame, Mata Hari will do everything so that no one finds out about this shortcoming.

Using the method of elimination. Margaret came up with the idea of ​​exotic dancing, choosing a completely suitable pseudonym for this: Mata Hari. Margaret Celle-McLeod's Paris debut took place on March 13, 1905 in the hall of the Guimet Museum. Her appearance on stage was preceded by a short performance by Monsieur Guimet himself with an intriguing story about distant, mysterious India and a brief biography of the performer: the daughter of a temple dancer, she was kidnapped from the Shiva temple by a British officer madly in love with her, with whom she married and lived until local fanatics killed her. both him and their firstborn, and further in the same spirit. Only then, to the sounds of mesmerizing music, a mysterious woman in luxurious oriental attire appeared before the audience. Dancing slowly, she began to undress and soon was left in only a bodice, the cups of which were decorated with jewels. Heavy bracelets jingled on her arms and legs.

“My dance is a sacred poem, and every movement in it is a word. “I performed these dances in the Shiva temple,” Mata Hari told the admiring spectators. “All temple dances are fundamentally religious; sacred texts are conveyed through gestures and poses.” Given the fashionable passion for Eastern mysticism and the occult at that time, this was quite enough for the emergence of a real world sensation. Although there were no more than a hundred exotic lovers in the small hall that evening, the very next morning all of Paris was talking only about the oriental beauty, who was naked on the stage strewn with rose petals.

The daughter of a Dutch hatter, the ex-wife of a Dutch warrior overnight turned into “the living embodiment of the mysterious East.” Wherever she appeared, be it the famous variety show Folies Bergere or the no less famous Ballet of Monte Carlo, her performances were always a success.

It wasn't just jaded rich slackers who felt the delight. Even the great composer Puccini could not resist and sent her a huge bouquet of flowers to her hotel with a note: “When I saw your dance, I felt in seventh heaven.”

It is curious that Margaret herself was very critical of her abilities. “People come to my performances only because I was the first woman who dared to appear in front of them without clothes.” - she said.

However, Margaret, undressing almost completely on stage, never remained completely naked: her chest was covered by a bejeweled bodice, and a flesh-colored tights always remained on her hips. In August 1906, having squeezed everything she could out of the loving Parisians, Mata Hari set off to conquer neighboring countries.

The fame of the exotic dancer was preceded by rumors about her numerous love victories. If you believe the newspapers of that time, in just a year she managed to seduce the entire French Council of Ministers, the entire male part of the English royal house, not to mention hundreds of millionaires, politicians, artists and, of course, high-ranking military officers. And this despite the fact that the courtesan priced her intimate services at the highest rate at that time - seven thousand francs per night.

At first, she adhered to a firm rule: not to sleep with the same man more than twice. “There are so many men, and I’m only one!” – Mata Hari often said. But in Berlin she first violated this principle, becoming the constant mistress of the Prussian landowner Alfred Kiepert, lieutenant of the Kaiser's personal convoy. Their romance lasted for two years - exactly the same amount of time it took her to ruin one of the richest people in Prussia with her exorbitant spending. In just the first year of her life with “darling Alfie,” Mata Hari managed to spend more than five million marks on luxurious outfits (she never appeared in public twice in the same dress), shoes (after leaving the estate, she gave the servants more than a thousand pairs shoes) and jewelry (she needed a whole container to transport the “stones” she earned in Germany).

And if we add to this her habit of taking a daily bath from the best varieties of champagne and absorbing kilograms of the freshest sturgeon caviar, one can only wonder why Kipert did not go broke earlier.

Having parted with the landowner who had lost all material value for her, in the summer of 1908 Mata Hari returned to her beloved Paris, where she quickly found herself a new patron, the retired General Rousseau, who had become fabulously rich by supplying the army with new high-speed guns. The arms manufacturer made her his common-law wife and opened a loan for her in the country's largest bank, setting only one condition: the famous dancer would have to leave the stage and become the mistress of his luxurious castle on the Loire. Mata Hari did not object.

Having gained power over the millionaire, she devoted herself headlong to her favorite pastime - she began to waste money. Russo's ruinous spending on his mistress and a rather risky game on the stock exchange led to financial ruin within a year. All his property was sealed, so Margaret had to move from the luxurious castle to a modest - “only” three floors and thirty rooms - mansion in a Parisian suburb.

In the spring of 1911 she returned to the stage. Although almost six years have passed since Mata Hari’s debut and it was already difficult to surprise anyone with a public striptease in the Old World, the return of the 35-year-old bayadère became her new triumph. The doors of the most famous theater in Europe - Milan's La Scala - opened before her. The management, which had recently rejected the great Isadora Duncan, gave Mata Hari an engagement, declaring her “an unsurpassed master of the art of dance.”

The performances were sold out, but the dancer, accustomed to spending without counting, was constantly short of money. And rich lovers, frightened by the stories of Kiepert and Rousseau, did not dare to take the fatal beauty on full board. But there was an abundance of military men hovering around her, who always attracted the hatter’s daughter so strongly. Over the years, Mata Hari refused intimacy to a military man only once - this unlucky one turned out to be a very young, but persistent lieutenant beyond his years with the non-Aryan surname Canaris.

During a date in the spring of 1914, he tried to recruit a dancer to work for German intelligence. The indignant courtesan threw the young man in uniform out the door. The future head of Hitler’s Abwehr did not forget such an insult...

In July 1914, she arrived in Berlin, where she signed a contract to participate in the ballet “The Thief of Millions.” The premiere was scheduled for September 1. However, the dancer’s plans were not destined to come true: a month before the appointed date, the First World War began. And again Mata Hari must start all over again. She is 38 years old, money is running out, and stage triumphs have to be postponed until peacetime. It was at this moment that Mata Hari was found by German intelligence representative von Kappel, who decided to use the dancer’s numerous love affairs with Parisian high society for the glory of the German Empire.

The stranded courtesan realized that the war could turn out to be the same source of income as the stage, and the role of a spy is hardly more difficult than the role of an oriental stripper - and agreed to the proposal, asking for 100 thousand imperial marks in advance. The Germans allocated her only 30 thousand, but Mata Hari, who received the code name H21, was happy about this. Apparently, she had no intention of trying hard in her new field, hoping to fool everyone around her finger once again.

Margaret didn’t care who to extract money from - rich lovers or the German General Staff. She did not yet understand that in this new play, where everything depends on men in uniform, she herself was only assigned the role of an extra, and at the right moment she would simply be removed from the stage. Moreover, it was during the war that the irreparable happened.

Mata Hari, who only allowed men to love her, and for very substantial sums, fell in love herself. 21-year-old staff captain of the dragoon regiment Vadim Maslov, who served in the Russian expeditionary force in France, was old enough to be the son of a 40-year-old dancer. But for his sake, Margaret was ready to do literally anything. It is unlikely that Vadim had the same feelings for her, although he was certainly flattered by the passion of such a famous woman, who delighted and attracted a whole host of rich and famous men. Most likely, for him it was just a fleeting romance, especially since the staff captain did not intend to start a family in the near future - unlike the dancer’s previous lovers, the Russian officer was not rich.

But Mata Hari was not going to give up - the courtesan in love was ready to move mountains. She promised Maslov to get the money, and now she had only one way to do this. For the sake of love for the Russian officer, Mata Hari finally decided to become a professional spy. She, of course, understood perfectly. that espionage was an unsafe occupation, but she hoped that, as always, she would be saved by her beauty and connections in high circles. Besides, she could only think about her future life with Vadim. In her dreams, she pictured the house where they would live after the war, going out and, of course, children—the children they shared with Vadim.

The craft of a spy was for her at that time the only way to get rich. In order to stay with Maslov, Mata Hari was ready to seduce and betray half of Europe. “Masloff was the only man I truly loved,” Margaret would later say at the trial, where a photograph of them together would be presented as evidence. In the photograph, written in Mata Hari’s hand: “In memory of the most wonderful days of my life, spent with the wonderful Vadim, whom I love more than anything in the world.” To take this photo, Mata Hari came to the resort town of Vittel, where the “wonderful Vadim,” wounded near Verdun, was undergoing treatment at that time. Since the resort was located on the front line, Margaret had to go to Captain Lad, who at that time headed the French counterintelligence, for permission to travel.

There's a war going on... but whose side are you on? – at the first meeting the captain asked.

“I’m Dutch,” admitted Mata Hari. – And Holland maintains neutrality... But my sympathies are on the side of France.

Great! – Ladu exclaimed contentedly. “Then you simply must work for the good of France and for its victory.”

When Mata Hari returned to Paris, Captain Ladoux immediately invited her to go to Belgium and, seducing Werflein, a close friend of the Governor General of Belgium, to begin transmitting information to Paris. Mata Hari agreed, demanding a million francs “for business”: “I will need to buy a lot of beautiful dresses, because I can’t appear naked before the governor?” Ladu agreed to provide an advance of 30 thousand - in the old days, this is how much she earned in just a few dates.

So Mata Hari became a double agent - she was now paid money by both the Germans and the French. During the First World War, many successful spies worked for both warring sides - for example, the mistress of the German intelligence resident in Spain, the beautiful Martha Riche (operational pseudonym Lark) or Elisabeth Schragmuller (Frau Doktor), who at the end of the war became one of the leaders of German intelligence.

Compared to them, the dancer Mata Hari looked like a pitiful amateur. The role of a spy turned out to be a failure for her: she was unable to obtain either information for her curators or big money for herself. The myth of Mata Hari as the greatest double agent in history is just that, a myth. She simply pulled money from the German and French treasuries, sending in return information that turned out to be either completely insignificant or well known to everyone. For two and a half years, she never conveyed information that would in any way influence the course of hostilities.

But, as it turned out, it was just such an amateur spy that suited German and French intelligence. Mata Hari turned out to be a bargaining chip in a complex combination invented by the intelligence services of the two countries. In the last years of the war, the French needed a high-profile show trial of a dangerous agent, and the Germans had long used Mata Hari to transmit misinformation to the enemy through her. In the end, German intelligence decided to simply hand over their agent H21 as unnecessary. In addition, the Germans, who had been unsuccessfully trying to break through the Allied positions on the Western Front for two years, also benefited from the espionage scandal in France. It would give them a chance to misdirect French counterintelligence officers, diverting suspicion from the real agents who infested the French rear.

However, one of the German intelligence officers also had a personal motive. Lieutenant Canaris, the same one whom Mata Hari contemptuously refused only a few years ago, worked as a resident assistant in Spain. It was he who, in the fall of 1916, sent a telegram that dramatically changed the life of the unlucky intelligence officer: “Agent N21 is here. Claims to have been recruited by the French. Demands new money to return to Paris. Telegraph how to deal with her.”

It should be clarified that by the summer of 1916, the French had already set up the most modern radio interception center at the top of the Eiffel Tower, so German intelligence used radio communications extremely carefully. Moreover, by that time no one had used the exposed cipher of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - but it was precisely with this that the ill-fated telegram was encrypted. Therefore, the Germans wanted the French to read this information. The telegram became bait, which French intelligence immediately swallowed.

In December of the same year, one of the loyal fans hinted to the dancer that the competent authorities strongly recommended that he break off all relations with her. But Mata Hari did not attach any importance to this warning. She didn’t pay attention to the nervousness of Captain Lada, who actually put the brakes on the preparations for sending her to the German rear. Margaret's thoughts were occupied with something else: why did her lover disappear so mysteriously?

Indeed, on the very eve of Christmas, Staff Captain Maslov, on orders from Russian counterintelligence, left his hospital and departed in an unknown direction, without leaving even a note for Margaret. She returned to France - here the last few weeks of freedom awaited her, which Mata Hari spent as if intoxicated, as if already anticipating her approaching end. She changed lovers almost hourly, spent crazy amounts of money in the casino, and went on wild sprees.

The wild life ended on February 13, 1917, when six policemen, led by the chief of the Parisian police, appeared on the threshold of her room at the Palace Hotel. He read out the order for the arrest of Margaret Celle on charges of espionage. The investigation was unable to provide evidence of Mata Hari's guilt, but the judges still sentenced her to death. If she had been arrested a year earlier, Mata Hari could have easily gotten away with deportation from the country or, at worst, several years in prison.

But it was in 1917 that the Clemenceau government came to power and, in the name of bringing the war to a victorious end, proclaimed a decisive cleansing of the French rear from traitors. A large show trial was required, and it was difficult to imagine a better victim than a popular dancer and scandalous courtesan with a reputation as an unscrupulous seductress. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the French authorities made the poor woman the culprit of almost all of their military failures and huge losses. She had about the same chance of surviving as Joan of Arc had of avoiding the fire in Rouen.

The most surprising thing is that the French prosecutors could not provide direct evidence of her guilt. The main evidence - a bottle supposedly containing sympathetic ink - turned out to be mercuric cyanide, a painful but quite effective contraceptive for that time, which Mata Hari, due to her turbulent sex life, constantly resorted to. Prosecutor Bouchardon compensated for the lack of evidence with angry pathos of speeches: he even accused the stripper of organizing the murder of the British Minister of War Lord Kitchener, although he died on a ship that sank from the explosion of a German torpedo.

There was also no need to talk about the impartiality of the judges. On the eve of the trial, the dancer's former lover, military commandant Major Maccap, instructed the judges on behalf of the senior military leadership: “Mata Hari is guilty. And if this woman cannot be shot as a spy, she must be burned as a witch.” In this situation, her many fans behaved differently.

The civilians still tried to help - for example, lawyer Clune agreed to defend Mata Hari for free, and even after the verdict he turned to President Poincaré, begging to replace the death penalty with prison. But the military men she loved so much openly chickened out. The former Minister of War, General Messimy, even sent a letter to the trial, written by his wife, in which he asked to be excused from testifying, since he did not know the accused at all. Mata Hari laughed: “He doesn’t know me? And when he slept with me and confessed his love to me, he didn’t know either?!” “If anyone paid me, it was the French counterintelligence, since I worked only for them,” said Mata Hari. “The fact that I had intimate relationships with people in different countries does not mean that I spied in their interests.”

The trial began on July 24, 1917, lasted one day behind closed doors, and ended with a death sentence. At the end of the trial, Mata Hari did not even try to defend herself. She didn’t care anymore: Vadim Maslov never showed up at the trial.

Early in the morning of October 15, Captain Bouchardon appeared in cell No. 12 of the Saint-Lazare prison. “Take courage, madam,” he said. – Your request for pardon was rejected by the President of the French Republic. The time has come." "This is impossible! - Mata Hari shouted, believing until the last moment that she would be pardoned. - This is impossible!" Nuns rushed to her, who in recent days often supported the condemned woman. “No need, sisters. – said Mata Hari, suddenly calming down. “I know how to behave, and I know how I should die.”

The last journey through the streets of Paris - and a military training ground. A lonely thin figure of a woman stretched out in front of a platoon of soldiers. Black silk dress, black hat. She refused the offer to blindfold her and calmly looked into the barrels aimed at her.

There were many rumors that before her death, Mata blew a kiss to the shooters. Mata Hari was killed by a single bullet that hit her right in the heart. Only one soldier from the entire platoon shot at her - the rest fired bullets into the air. Her body, once one of the most coveted, turned out to be of no use to anyone and was donated to the medical college at the Sorbonne. There her head was separated from her body and given to the anatomical museum, to an exhibition of images of the greatest criminals. The exhibit was kept here for almost 85 years, until - already in 2003 - its mysterious disappearance was discovered. And after her death, Mata Hari continues to confuse numerous researchers of her life - perhaps this last mystery of hers will forever remain unsolved.

5 secrets of Mata Hari's seduction.

1. Stand out.

Even as a child, the future fatal seductress Mata Hari stood out among her peers. She imagined an incredible origin for herself, fantasized about adventure, wealth and fame. She was never timid, she always tried to attract attention. And those around her loved her for this: for her vivacity, for her sharp tongue and bright energy. Margareta, while still a girl, understood: if you want success, make sure you are noticed. And she always did just that. Therefore, we advise our readers to take note: if you want to succeed with the opposite sex, always try to be a little brighter than the rest, try to stand out.

2. Take initiative.

The inimitable Mata was never afraid to take the initiative. It was not easy for her to take the first step: she did not care about such trifles, she persistently walked towards achieving her goal, not caring about such trifles as the first step. The girl was 18 years old when she saw a marriage ad for a certain Rudolph McLeod in the newspaper. The already middle-aged captain soon sailed to Holland. Margareta could not miss the opportunity, and, despite the fact that the announcement turned out to be just a joke, she boldly offered to meet the captain. In the end, she got her way: her newly-made husband took her with him. Having achieved such an amazing result in an incredibly short time, Margaret realized that initiative and assertiveness could be the key to the heart of any man, not just a woman. This strategy needs to be taken into account: beauty was not the main advantage of Mata Hari (she had a rather peculiar face, a disproportionate figure and extremely tall height), but rather a strong core and the ability to get what she wanted.

3. Never give up and be brave.

Mata's family life was unhappy. However, this is precisely what marked the beginning of the success of the future incomparable seductress. To shield herself from melancholy, she became interested in dancing. She did not revel in grief, did not withdraw into herself, and did not become depressed. On the contrary, she began an even brighter life. Dancing, social events, and the study of exotic cultures and customs became the basis of the new Margaret. After some time, she decides to divorce and commits a truly desperate act: she leaves for Paris, having neither connections nor means of subsistence. There she takes the pseudonym Mata Hari and, with her characteristic assertiveness, performs a second incredible act: she persuades the museum owner to let her dance among the exhibits! Previously, this was simply unacceptable. She is a true example of how a woman should achieve success: always pull herself together, work on herself and do desperate things. This is the only way to get everything you want.

4. Be mysterious.

Mata Hari, thanks to her incredibly brave and successful performance at the museum, became wildly popular among men: her relaxedness and fearlessness attracted them. However, she never showed all her cards. Surrounding herself with a whole halo of mysteries (either she seemed like a princess, or the heiress of a rich family), this amazing woman never talked about her unhappy fate or problems. She allowed men to plunge into a fairy tale with her, gaining complete power over them. So you shouldn’t tell everything about yourself at the first convenient opportunity, especially misfortunes and tragedies: they evoke pity, not admiration. Be a little more mysterious, it will only add charm to you.

5. Be smart.

There are real legends that Mata Hari was a double spy. She always skillfully manipulated the men around her. However, the reason for this, even according to the seductress herself, was not her beauty at all: “I learned what a woman’s power over men is – over those who decide the destinies of entire nations. The world is ruled by women – smart women!”

The words of Mata Hari should always be remembered by any representative of the fairer sex, because intelligence and intelligence are perhaps her most important secret of seduction.

M ata Hari is a pseudonym, it means “Eye of the Day”, “Sun”.
At the beginning of the last century, this name was synonymous with “femme fatale.” The film has just finished on Channel 1 of Russian television. There’s a lot of stuff mixed in there, so it doesn’t hurt to separate fiction from fact.

Margaret Gertrude Celle is the real name of Mata Hari (a subject of the Netherlands), who was loved too much by men, intelligence, money, and perhaps Love itself helped her on her life’s path. Below are rare photos and the truth from the biography of the most famous courtesan of the twentieth century...

Mata Hari was born on August 7 (August 19), 1876 in the city of Leeuwarden, 140 kilometers north of Amsterdam.

The daughter of local shopkeeper Adam Zelles, she was the only daughter and second child of four children. Margaret was accustomed to luxury from childhood; her father saw potential in the oil industry and became rich. Margaret went to exclusive schools, but the family broke up and then her mother died.

In 1893, Margaret moved to live with her godfather in Sneek. Then she continued her studies in Leiden, receiving the profession of a kindergarten teacher, but she had an affair with the director of the school and was taken away from there with a scandal. A few months later she runs away to her uncle in The Hague.

In 1895, according to a marriage advertisement in a Dutch newspaper, Margaret marries Captain Rudolf John McLeod. She is 18 years old, the groom is 21 years older. Together they move to Malang, the eastern side of the island of Java (now Indonesia, formerly a Dutch colony there). The family has two children - son Norman John and daughter Jeanne Louise.

Alas, the husband was an alcoholic and kept a maid-concubine. By the way, this is still the custom among the Dutch there now. When we lived there with a Dutchman, his Indonesian maid ran away, leaving him with a common son, whom he raised with his wife. But I digress.

Soon Rudolph began to raise his hand against her. And then the maid poisoned her children. The son died in terrible agony, and the daughter was miraculously saved (according to some reports, he died of syphilis and the maid was not to blame).

After this, Margaret left for another officer and soon began working in a local dance group. In 1897, she first mentioned her artistic pseudonym - Mata Hari.

In 1900, Mata Hari moved to Paris. She wanted fame and money. There Mata Hari begins a new life and skillfully plays on the European craving for everything Eastern. Mata claimed to be an exotic princess - the daughter of King Edward VII and an Indian princess. Further, the newspapermen themselves inflated tales around her name.

At first she performed as a circus rider under the name "Lady Gresha McLeod."

The debut of the dancer Mata Hari took place in Guimet on March 13, 1905. The audience was delighted! Men were fascinated by her art of undressing. It was she who managed to put striptease into an art form. This niche was free - therefore it had no equal, because erotic art was not yet known in Europe.

Modern fitness girls would readily call her body shapeless, her breasts nonexistent, and she didn’t know how to dance (which even her contemporaries noted). Mata Hari attracted men with her softness, tenderness of skin, cat-like flexibility, shameless, even mocking and defiant gaze with undisguised desire and her naked body skillfully covered with transparent fabrics. Outwardly sensual, alluring, stunning woman - she, indeed, was a cynical, money-greedy adventurer, and after her execution she deservedly became the most famous courtesan of the twentieth century.

Her daughter lived with her father and died at the age of 21, most likely from complications of syphilis, which she contracted as a child.

Europe fell in love with her erotic dance. In Monte Carlo, Prince Albert I of Monaco himself was present among the audience. The dancer performed on the same stage with world stars - Fyodor Chaliapin, Emma Calvet and Geraldine Farrar.

Two famous composers were ready to write music for her dance numbers - Jules Massenet and Giacomo Puccini. Both musicians were passionate about Mata Hari. Puccini showered her with expensive gifts, incl. spent on it funds intended for the troupe of his theater. While Jules Massenet, rejected by her, tries to commit suicide. Next, Mata Hari leaves for Verona with Giacomo Puccini, who soon gets into an accident...

Biographers estimate that in 5 years she had 104 lovers.

Alas, very soon young dancers adopted this style of dancing on stage - she had competitors. At the age of 40, it became impossible to compete with young dancers.

During the First World War, as a Dutch citizen, Margareta Zelle could travel from France to her homeland and back (the Netherlands remained a neutral country).

Apparently, Mata Hari was a German spy long before the war. On the eve of the war, Mata Hari was introduced to a wealthy German banker who spared no expense on her. Then the woman was offered to cooperate with German intelligence. The dancer agreed and received the secret name “Agent N-21”.

The Germans were apparently attracted by her wide connections and the ability to travel freely throughout Europe. As for Mata Hari herself, she spoke about her connections with German intelligence this way: “I remembered my expensive fur coats and outfits that the Germans detained in Berlin, and decided that I needed to get as much money as possible from them for this.”

In 1916, French counterintelligence had the first indications of her involvement in working for Germany. Having learned about this, Mata Hari herself came to the French intelligence services and offered her services to them, accidentally naming, among other things, the name of one of her lovers, well known to her interlocutors as a German recruiting agent.

As a result, the French sent her early next year on a minor mission to Madrid, and suspicions of espionage were finally confirmed: the radio traffic of a German agent was intercepted. Then she was drawn into the struggle between the special services among themselves, and a similar meat grinder grinded even less personalities. In addition to French, British, German and Russian intelligence, there was also Serbian intelligence (according to some sources, it also worked for it).

Mata Hari in 1915.

Lieutenant Colonel of the British and Dutch counterintelligence Orest Pinto wrote that “... in the eyes of the public she became the personification of a charming female spy. But Mata Hari was a stupid, expansive creature. If she had not been executed, she would not have been known as a martyr and no one would have even heard of about her."

Mata Hari herself always denied her espionage activities. But she loved men with name and power. These contacts attracted intelligence from the warring countries and ultimately became the reason for her death.

On February 13, 1917, at the Elise Palace Hotel in Paris, Mata Hari was arrested by French intelligence and accused of spying for the enemy during wartime.

Her trial was held behind closed doors. She was accused of transmitting information to the enemy that led to the death of several divisions of soldiers. French counterintelligence successfully molded Mata Hari into a real monster serving the enemy. However, the case materials, which allegedly prove the dancer’s guilt, are still classified.

Her last affair with 21-year-old Russian officer Vladimir Maslov really happened. There is even a version that it was his injury and the necessary material support that became the motive for her espionage activities. But research by biographers showed: Maslov was wounded when Mata Hari was already in prison.

“Without a doubt, this is the type of woman who is used to using men, who is born to be a spy” - this was the conclusion that was the basis of her accusation. “A prostitute, yes, but a traitor, never,” she said, but it didn’t matter.

The night before her execution, she slept peacefully. When the guards came for her and asked her to get dressed, she was outraged that they would execute her in the morning without feeding her breakfast. While she was preparing for execution, the coffin for her body had already been delivered to the building.

She put on black silk stockings and transparent lingerie, high-heeled shoes and tied silk ribbons to the instep. Then she took a long black velvet cloak with fur trim and put it on over a silk kimono. She put her rich black hair in braids around her head, covered her with a black felt hat, and slowly and indifferently pulled on a pair of kid gloves...

The execution took place at a military training ground in Vincennes on October 15, 1917. Mata Hari calmly, without a trace of excitement, stood at the execution stake and refused to wear a blindfold. Blowing a kiss to twelve soldiers (her executioners), the undaunted Mata Hari shouted: “I’m ready, gentlemen.”

Along with the salvo, one of the soldiers, just called up for duty, fainted in unison with the lifeless body of Mata Hari. There was a legend that she took off her coat and presented her naked body to the eyes of the soldiers, but this is a lie.

After the execution, a certain officer approached the body of the executed woman and, just to be sure, shot her in the back of the head with a revolver. Her body was then transferred to the anatomical theater.

During one of the audits, Mata Hari's head was not found. According to the official version, they lost their heads when the museum moved to another building...

Interest in her personality did not disappear even after the execution. Three years after her execution, the film “Mata Hari” was shot with Asta Nielsen in the title role. Today the number of actresses who played her in films is more than twenty...

Info and photos from various sources. Warp:
World history of espionage. Auto-stat. M.I. Umnov. - M.: AST, 2000.
Leila Wertenbaker "The Life and Death of Mata Hari." Novel./Trans. from English V. Kuznetsova. - M.: Press, 1993.

Did little Dutchwoman Margareta Gertrude Zelle think that she was destined to become one of the most famous women and live a short but incredibly eventful life? Having lost everything and being left completely alone, she managed to overcome difficulties and become an “eastern goddess”, driving men crazy and causing the public to go wild. But her last passion and love was a Russian officer.

Birth of Mata Hari

Vadim Pavlovich Maslov and Margareta Gertrude Zelle./photo: stripdir.com

And just a beauty./photo: allmir.in.ua

The fate of Vadim Maslov

It remains to be noted that Mata Hari is called the most famous spy of all time, which also successfully combined the roles of a courtesan and a dancer.